The Supreme Court has given sage advice to governments on cow vigilantism. It asked every state to appoint a senior police official in each district to stop the vigilantes from violence in the name protecting cows.

The vigilantes must be brought to book promptly, the court said, with the Chief Justice also voicing concern and pointing out that a mechanism should be in place to arrest this deeply divisive mania. Cow vigilantism has spread disaffection and caused deaths too by lynching, which has no place in any civilised society. The ongoing litigation against the despicable practice also reminds us the Centre can’t abdicate its constitutional responsibility to instruct the states to take steps to save innocent lives from mob fury.

The Prime Minister has spoken in no uncertain terms on stopping violence in the cow’s name. The animal may have been revered for centuries, but there’s just no place for the depravity of indiscriminate attacks against those transporting cows due to misplaced confidence about the attackers being backed by false notions of the strength of majoritarianism. The zealots don’t seem to care about the damage done to social harmony by these brazen acts. They may feel encouraged in the current environment. The number of vigilante events, said to be 66 by one count, is a clear pointer to the frenzy fed also by videos of such violence being aired on the social media by mischievous elements. A court-directed system of accountability in law enforcement must be backed by governments walking the talk after condemning cow vigilantism.